Take a break from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and join Manhattan Project National Historical Park park rangers at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22, at the Turnpike Gatehouse for a discussion of what life was like during the Manhattan Project with the overwhelming need for secrecy, security and the worry of spies.

This program is free and open to the public; parking is limited, so please carpool if possible.

The Gatehouse is located at 2900 Oak Ridge Turnpike, just past the intersection of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Westover Drive in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office will initiate controlled burns of woodland areas on the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation within the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement East Tract and Parcel ED-6 along North Boundary Road and Wisconsin Avenue off of Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Firebreak installation activities supporting these burns will begin in the near future with ignitions taking place as soon thereafter as weather conditions permit and continuing through December.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning are joining forces on National Public Lands Day to eradicate wisteria from Worthington Cemetery and privet and other invasive exotics from the Ecological Study Area on Melton Hill Reservoir in Oak Ridge.

The work session will begin at 9 a.m. Sept. 29 in Elza Gate Park, 101 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, and end around noon with a pizza lunch provided by the Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning.